Method of processing hosiery



Patented May 18, 1954 METHOD OF PROCESSING HOSIERY Harry S. Drum and Pa., assignors to Philadelphia, Pa., Vania William C. Dodson, Smith, Drum &

a corporation of Pennsyl- Abington, Company,

No Drawing. Application December 27, 1950, Serial No. 203,028

1 Claim. 1

The present invention relates generally to the treating and finishing of fabric articles and more particularly to a method for processing hosiery.

Prior to the present invention it has been customary to preboard or preset the stockings after knitting, remove the preset stockings from the boards, place them in a bag, commonly known as a dye net, and put the net into a dyeing machine of either a rotary or paddle type, where the net-enclosed stockings are scoured, dyed, and finally given a finishing or protective coating.

Thus, in these several operations the goods are moved through the different liquors. After the finishing operation the bagged stockings are removed. from the dyeing machine and while still in the nets are placed in a centrifuge to remove excess moisture. With this extracting operation completed the nets are removed from the centrifuge, the stockings taken out of the nets and each pulled by hand onto its individual heated metal form for drying and shaping. A disadvantage to this prior method is that due to the action of the dyeing machine the stockings are wrinkled and damaged. This damage at times will amount to thirty-five percent of the total production. Furthermore, the manual pulling of individual stockings onto a form is a delicate opera tion requiring skillful operators, as otherwise excessive pulling effort stretches the stocking so that lengths are uneven, while the shape is improperly deformed. Also, as the operators hands smooth a stocking on its form residual finish compound collected on the hands of a crystalline structure causes damage to the fabric. Thi net process is a relatively long one due to the slow penetration of the liquors into the mass of hosiery in the net.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved method of processing stockings made essentially of nylon or other thermoplastic yarn.

Another object is to provide a method of processing nylon hosiery in unboard'ed condition after presetting and removal from the preshaping boards.

Another object is to provide a method of processing unboarded preset stockings without having to use nets or bags.

Another object is to provide a method of processing unboarded preset stockings wherein treating, dyeing, finishing and drying steps are successively carried out upon a plurality of preboarded stockings in the form of a bundle.

A further object is to provide a method of dyetreating and finishing operations for stocking manufacture wherein the time factor has been materially reduced.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

According to the method of the present invention, stockings, which have been preboarded or preset, are removed from the boards and orderly stacked fiat one upon another to form a bundle in which the preset condition is preserved. When so arranged a perviou wrapper or other restraining means is provided for holding the stockings in fiat superposed arrangement as a stationary stack. The fiat stack of stockings are now subjected to the circulation of a treating liquor preliminary to introducing dye liquor. Following the treating operation, the treating liquor is replaced by the dye liquor which is circulated through the stockin to uniformly penetrate all of the fabric. Upon completion of the dyeing step, the liquid finishing compound is applied to the stockings, which are now ready for the final treatment. This final step consists of subjecting the stockings to a stream of air which removes all excess moistur and leaves the stockings ready for inspecting, pairing and boxing, since the preset shaping has not been altered and no handling or reshaping has been necessary during the successive steps of the novel method, all of which takes place in the absence of a shaping board.

It will now be apparent that a novel method of processing preboarded stockings has been devised wherein stockings are assembled in bundle form while maintaining the preset condition, and the bundle or bundles then subjected to successive circulations of processin liquor while the bundles remain stationary. By the passing of the liquor through the bundles without disturbing the arranged stockings, damage to the stockings is so reduced as to be negligible. Furthermore. the stockings are finished ready for packaging without requiring the use of heated forms and the attendant handling steps.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

The method of processing hosiery which have been preset and preshaped on metal boards and removed from the boards, which consists in arranging the preset, preshaped stockings fiat one upon another to form a stack of shaped stockings, maintaining the stack stationary, and successively passing dye liquor, finishing liquor and air through the stationary stack, thereby producing finished stockings ready for inspection and packaging.

(References on following page) References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Country Date Number Name Date 450,198 Great Britain July 13, 1936 480,102 Keene Aug. 2, 13 5 OTHER REFERENCES i figz g a 'g Rayon Textile Monthly, July 1944, pages 2289 37? Miles Jul y 14 1942 57(325)58(326)- 2'299040 j g Oct 1942 Matthews, Apphcatlon of Dyestuff, pages 24 and 25, pub. 1920, John Wiley & Sons Inc., N. Y. C. 2,303,934 Heckert Dec. 1, 1942 10 2,333,160 Dunn Nov. 2, 1943 2,556,153 Collins June 5, 1951 

